Straw, hay and other forage material are sometimes baled in large round bales measuring up to seven feet in diameter and weighing over two thousand pounds. Such bales have a number of advantages over smaller bales but they are very difficult to break up.
A number of different shredders have been proposed for tearing apart large round bales. Some of them have teeth which tear at the side of the bale where it is easier to break off material than from the closely packed ends. One example of such a machine is a Bale Buster sold by Vermeer Manufacturing of Pella, Iowa. A disadvantage with machines of this type is that the cutters must run the length of the bale. In addition, the Vermeer shredder is not designed to chop very finely. There are also shredders which tear apart large round bales from the end as exemplified by a Bale Chopper sold by Kidd Farm Machinery Ltd. of Wiltshire, England. In these machines, the bale is rotated over the cutters.